Eggplant

Beautiful to behold, better to eat

August 20, 2008|By Emily Nunn, TRIBUNE REPORTER

It's seems sad to cut into the gorgeous, shiny deep purple skin of an eggplant just to make a meal. And perhaps that's why some people buy them but never cook them, as if they were mere decoration, like those fancy, frilly leafed cabbages you see in bank landscaping and house magazines.

But beauty is not nearly as enduring as deliciousness, and if you don't seize the day, your eggplants will end up sad and wrinkled on your kitchen counter, just like we all might, having never really lived their lives to the fullest.

And just in case you're tempted: Not every eggplant was put on this Earth to end up as an old fashioned eggplant Parmesan or caponata. One of our favorite ways to eat it, however, actually comes from an old-fashioned cookbook.

We first prepared and ate this recipe for eggplant with linguine back in the early '80s, when the idea of "health food" meant vegetables with loads of butter and sour cream, as in the vegetable stroganoff recipe in Mollie Katzen's 1977 "Moosewood Cookbook." In all these years, through all the food fashions, we never stopped making this dreamy eggplant dish from the same book; it's full of great flavor and texture without lots of added fat, depending on how easy you go on the Parmesan. We've added extra tomato and some grated zucchini to tip the scales on the side of the vegetables; more garlic doesn't hurt, either.

Menu

*Summer harvest linguine

*Orange, radish and cucumber salad with mint

*Zabaglione with berries

Summer harvest linguine

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Yield:6 servings

Adapted from "The Moosewood Cookbook," by Mollie Katzen.

2 tablespoons each: olive oil, butter

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 bay leaf

1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 pound mushrooms, chopped

4 medium tomatoes chopped

1 large red or yellow bell pepper, seeded, chopped

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

4 black oil-cured olives, pitted, finely chopped

1 large zucchini, grated

1 cup red wine

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 box (1 pound) linguine, cooked to package directions

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and bay leaf; cook, stirring, until onions become translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in eggplant and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until eggplant begins to soften, about 10 minutes. Stir in mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms soften, about 10 minutes.